The drum break in The Soul Searchers song Ashley’s Roachclip from 1974 was well on it’s way to become just as hugely sampled as the Amen break. But something stopped its triumphant march: it went out of fashion. Like many breaks, it was first used in hiphoptracks in the early eighties. A lot of early […]
In 1977 the Isley Brothers released the album Go For Your Guns. Track 2 on that album is the very laid back song Footsteps in the Dark. Three songs were released as singles from that album, but Footsteps in the Dark was not one of them. Nevertheless, the song has gained popularity among hiphop and […]
Van Halen released Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love in 1978. It has since been covered often, for instance by Minutemen in 1984, by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in 1991 and more recently by Die Hunns in 2006. Surely the oddest one out cover is the version by Jazzkantine from 2008. Apart from that the song has […]
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy The year 2006 seems to be the absolute peak for the song Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. Not so much the original song, which was released in 1984, but as far as covers and sampling of the song goes. One of the first instances for the song to pop up […]
I’ve mentioned Radiohead a few times before. In fact, I’ve mentioned that their biggest hit ‘Creep‘ is loosely based on another song. I’ve also mentioned a clone song taken from Karma Police. Guess what? Karma Police itself might not be so uniquely original itself either. I’m certainly not the first to mention this and I […]
“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99, wear sunscreen.” You may recognise this line from film director Baz Luhrman’s hit Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen) from 1999. That hit song however is composed of a number of ‘samples’. First off, the ‘speech’ sampled in the song is actually an essay written by Mary Schmich […]
In 2004 the Shapeshifters (or Shape:UK if you live in the US) scored a modest hit with Lola’s Theme. Before that in 2003 however, it was already circulating as an instrumental only. The version with vocals had its entire instrumentation re-played from the instrumental version that contained a sample. That sample is Johnny Taylor’s 1982 […]
Gary Moore died yesterday so I decided to switch the post I had in mind for today around to make room for this one. Gary Moore was undeniably a very creative musician who had good control over his instrument of choice the guitar. And though he wrote quite a bulk of original work, his most […]
In honour of the International Film Festival Rotterdam that’s going on right now, not only a posts about samples from other songs, but also from film! In 1990 Primal Scream released the song Loaded. Most prominently, it features a sample from their own song I’m losing more than I’ll ever have from 1989. Whosampled.com says […]
Some songs don’t have an original, or it has become impossible to trace who wrote it or performed it first. You’d think this was just the case for any folk song pre-dating 1900, but it even happens for more recent classics. Take Hey Joe. Most people will say that the original (the one they know […]
